Alexa's random creepy laughter is freaking out Echo users

Bernard Bryant

Amazon also says that Alexa will only respond to follow-up requests that she's reasonably sure are actually requests for Alexa, so there may be some hits and misses in the early days as Amazon's computers figure out how best to hear what you're asking without the original wake word in the beginning each time. The blue light Echo devices will stay on during the five seconds to show that the assistant is still listening.

Amazon said its planned fix will involve disabling the phrase, "Alexa, laugh", and changing the command to "Alexa, can you laugh?"

With follow-up mode, users can give Alexa commands or requests back to back, without having to say "Alexa" for each one. Once the light starts to fade, Alexa is officially go back to sleep mode and must be woken up again with "Hey, Alexa", or whatever work you decide to set as your custom wake word or phrase.

According to the reports, the "follow-up mode" is opt-in and available for every device in the Echo lineup and some third-party Echo devices as well.

Amazon buried a little switch in the Alexa app that allows its AI assistant to be a lot more conversational.

On paper, follow-up mode sounds useful enough. For instance, this follow-up mode only works when Alexa is "confident" the second command is not just background noise from a conversation or a program on TV. Though, there are some things Amazon needs to work on. This new feature is available to all Amazon Echo devices but so far it is only available in US English.